I'm a wife, a mommy of three little girls AND a baby boy... I'm a daughter, a granddaughter, a cousin, an aunt, a sister-in-law, a daughter-in-law, a stepdaughter, a friend, a Christian, a klutz, and a mad scrapbooker! I'm a Southern girl who has been transplanted into the freezing snowy North. But I'll live.

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Good news: I think I'm going to live. I had a bit of a relapse last night, so I didn't go to church today, but I'm feeling better this evening. I think (knock on wood) that it's all over. *Sigh* of relief, definitely. Tonight as I was putting Sadie to bed, she grabbed her pajama pants, stuffed them around Snoopy (who was cuddled in her arm), and said, "Snoopy's going to take a nap in my pants." Now, that's not something you hear everyday. Yesterday, I gave her some chicken soup and I asked her if she was going to eat it with her spoon. Her reply: "Well, actually, Mommy, I think I will drink it." That was a new one for my two-year-old. Good grief. If she weren't so sweet, her smartness would scare me. (Oh, who am I kidding? It does scare me. Both she AND Josie are going to be 10 times smarter than me... I just know it!) Josie is -this- close to getting her 2nd top front tooth. She is so cute that it's hard to talk about! I cannot capture her unbelievable cute-cuddliness in words. I just want to SQUEEZE her... but I must restrain myself. In other news... the house hunt continues. We have looked at dozens in the past few weeks; the building thing is still up in the air, in case we don't find something that we like. The WE part is the problem. We have found a couple that he likes and a couple that I like, but we haven't reached a common consensus yet. Today we looked at one with tons of built-in bookshelves all over the house (a definite +++ for me) and lots of potential... of course, he doesn't like the basement or the garage. Sheesh. Oh, and we're going home for Memorial Day! Yahoo!!!

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Sorry it's been so long, but I have a good excuse. I have been nigh unto death with some sort of killer flu. Seriously. I won't go into the grisly details, but I lost 8 pounds in a 36 hour period. I want to lose some weight, but if this is how I have to do it, just call me Roly Poly.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Today, we went to tea at a real, live tea shoppe! It was Sadie's (and Josie's) first "tea party," and lucky girls... they got to have it with not one, but TWO grandmas in tow! You should have seen Sadie sipping her tea (pink lemonade) out of her very own little china cup. It was the cutest thing! She also got a little heart shaped sandwich, miniature spoon, and tiny little pieces of fruit. She thought it was so cool, and she tried to act grown up... at least for a little while! Meanwhile, Josie entertained herself by pulling off her socks, throwing spoons in the floor, smearing her face with cookies and chunks of potato, and generally wreaking havoc while still being the cutest baby ever - as only she can do. :)

Funny things that happened today: I took Josie into the ladies' room at the tea shoppe to change her diaper, and I thought we were alone. She was making this "ah-ah-ah-ah" noise over and over because she liked the echo in the bathroom. After a couple of minutes of this (with her getting louder and louder all the time), I said, "You like to hear yourself talk, don't you? You're just like your daddy!" Then I heard muffled laughter coming out of one of the stalls and this lady came out and said, "Just like her daddy, huh?" She cracked up. I was a wee bit embarrassed. Also, Mama taught Sadie the little hand game that says, "Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors, and here's the people!" At the end, when you flip your hands over and wiggle your fingers, ie: "the people," Sadie adds her own little 2 cents. This is Sadie's version: "Here the church. Here the steeple. Open door, and here the people! And thumbs!" Oh, man. We laughed so hard. She's a goof. Later, after we got home, Josie decided to steal Sadie's sippy cup when she wasn't looking (she's becoming very mobile, and she's rolling and scootching around to get to what she wants now). She then tipped over backwards, rolled over on her back on the floor, held the cup up with her hands AND her feet, and intentionlly splashed water all over her face. She would shake it, sling water on herself, suck in her breath (it was cold), then laugh and laugh. How funny!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

I know I haven't been keeping up for the past week, but I have a good reason... my mama is here for the whole week! Yahoo! When Sadie first saw her, she said, "Me miss you so much, Grammie! Me miss you so much ALL DAY LONG!" We've had a really good time, so far (up until yesterday, that is). We've done almost everything on my list (yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am a list-maker): shopping for Easter dresses, going to Chuck E. Cheese, shopping for shoes, getting massages, going for walks outside, playing on the playground, cooking, playing with play-dough, and generally just goofing off and having a good time. However, yesterday afternoon, Sadie (suddenly and without warning) came down with a horrible bug. She went around crying, clinging to me and to mama and saying, "Me don't feel good. Me want go to bed now." Bless her little heart. We felt so sorry for her! She had a fever all night and most of today... she's doing a little better, but I hate that she's sick. I would SO much rather be the sick one than to watch her feel bad. Josie, on the other hand, hasn't slowed down one bit... yesterday, I left her sitting on the floor in front of our bed with a basket of toys while I went into the kitchen. After being gone for less than two minutes, I came back in to find her scootched backwards on her tummy all the way under the bed. All I could see was the top of her head and her little, smiling cheeks. She thought she was so smart!! Easter Sunday, one of her top teeth finally pushed its way through, and now she's gritting and grinding her teeth (Sadie did the same thing, and I do it in my sleep). I just find that hilarious, given the fact that she only has THREE teeth.

Gasp! You see what happens when I don't get to vote? Egads! You-know-who ends up in the bottom 3! Oh man, oh man, I would never have forgiven myself if he'd gotten the boot and I didn't get to vote for him! As it is, I'm fairly happy that the other guy is gone. He was a simpering whiner, as far as I could tell. I'm so mean. I can't believe I waste my time typing about this total waste of time. Oh well. I guess everyone has to have SOMEthing wrong with them... I guess this is better than some of the alternatives....

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Tonight, Mama kept the girls while I went to choir practice. When I called to check on them, she informed me that Josie had called 911. Keep in mind that Josie is not yet 9 months old. I was a bit confused.... But apparently, the cordless phone was on the floor and Josie picked it up and started playing with it. She hit/bit a few buttons, then Mama took it from her and turned it off. Less than a minute later, it rang. "This is the emergency operator. What is your emergency?" Mama said, "Huh?" "Someone from this number called 911, ma'am." "Oh!! I guess the baby dialed it accidently." "Nonetheless, ma'am, an officer is on his way." SO... my child already has the police at our house, and she's not even 1 yet. Sheesh. Between the police and the Poison Control Hotline, I'm going to be on all kinds of child-protection lists. :)

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

I've been trying to deny it, but I think I may be the mother of a strong willed child. Josie's personality is almost the opposite of what Sadie's was when she was 9 months old... I'm afraid to admit it, but *whisper* Josie is exactly like me! What I mean is, she's all loving and cute and adorable and friendly one minute, and the next minute something ticks her off (ie: I won't let her eat plastic. I won't let her eat my cell phone. I won't let her eat styrofoam. I won't let her eat wet wipes. I won't let her eat her diaper.) and she shakes her fists, stiffens up, arches her back, throws her head back, and screams her little lungs out. She can throw a real, honest-to-goodness temper tantrum. It's scary. I've always joked about how Sadie is Jesse's clone, but yipes... I may have one, too! Funny things that happened today: Sadie wanted more cheese at supper, and I told her that she'd had enough. She replied, "Eat more cheese. Me eat cheese ALL DAY LONG!" Through the baby monitor, I heard Josie wake up from her nap, say "duh, duh, duh, doh, doh, duh" like she was counting, and start kicking her little legs like she was riding a bike... this makes her crib mattress go squeaky-squeaky-squeaky-squeaky over and over. It's funny to hear it, but not as funny to type it. :) Lastly, I totally slammed the top of my thigh right into the sharp corner of my keyboard tray as I was getting up, and instead of yelling or shouting obscenities (which you all know I really try not to ever do), I said, "Now , that's a pain that's gonna linger." LOL - hopefully, some of you know my old friend Ed Grimley, and you can appreciate that little tidbit.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Today, Josie was sucking on her toes, and I said, "Yum, yum! Those toes must be YUMMY!" Sadie proceeded to try them herself, since Josie was enjoying them so much.... The next thing I knew, Sadie had Josie's toes between her teeth, BITING them hard, and Josie was screaming in pain. I need to watch what I say. Apparently, two year olds take things very literally.

I entered a contest about why a mom should earn 130K a year... in 100 words or less. This is what I came up with:

As the mother of two girls under two, my day is never boring! As a matter of fact, it's a messy roller coaster of hugs, tears, boo-boos, squeals of laughter, cheerios all over the kitchen floor, spit-up in my hair, poop, poop, and more poop, "booty water" in the bathtub, silly songs, bedtime stories, and good night prayers. Raising two beautiful, intelligent, responsible girls in a world such as ours is not worth $130,000 a year. It's worth so much more... yet I'd do it forever for just one slobbery kiss and one heartfelt declaration: "Me love you, Mommy."

Yesterday, we went to a real, live, working farm. The girls both loved it. The big hit of the day with Sadie was getting to see a huge cow (close up) and a milking demonstration. When they asked who would like to help milk the cow, Sadie was the first one to volunteer! She jumped up and said, "Me do it!" She's such a helper. Anyway, she chickened out when we actually got close to the cow, but she stood there while I milked the cow. Yes, I said I MILKED A COW. We explained to her that when you squeeze the cow's udder, the milk comes squirting down into the bucket. She was mesmerized. However, for the rest of the day, all she could say was, "Squishy butt! Milk come out!"

Behind the cow was a little goat pen. A white goat set its sights on Josie's feet, and he stuck his head through the slats of the pen and began to nibble on them. Josie thought this was funny, and it would have made a fabulous picture, had Yours Truly been able to find the stupid camera. By the time I dug it out of the bottomless pit (ie: the diaper bag), the goat had moved on to bigger and better? things - Jesse's coat.

Next, we headed out to the chicken coop, where both girls (and both parents) were fascinated by these crazy looking chickens... they had huge afro hairdos - made of feathers, of course. One of them kept looking at Jesse like he wanted to peck his eyes out... this foul fowl even kicked dirt out at him through the wire of the cage. I came to the conclusion that chickens are just plain scary. Sadie went around yelling "cock-a-doodley-doo!" and "Eat corn! Eat corn!" until we fled the scent - I mean, scene.

The sheep were our next stop, and they were a real treat because lots and lots of baby lambs had just been born (it is spring, FINALLY, after all). Sadie clapped her hands and said, "Here sheeps! Here sheeps!" and miraculously, a cute little fuzzy lamb trotted over to see her and Josie. It took a great liking to Josie, and she squealed and laughed and tried to grab its head with both hands. She loved petting it, even more than Sadie did. Sadie was more interested in climbing up the fence and yelling, "Look at me!" and "I see poop! Sheep poop! Goat poop!"

At one point, two little lambs came over to the fence and climbed up on their mom's back and almost escaped! Then Mom stood up and shook them off, and one of them banged his head on the fence post. Sadie said, "Ow - he bumpeed head!"

We saw piglets, horses, calves, turkeys, ducks, and all kinds of things! It was altogether a fun trip. Jesse and I have decided to become farmers. Now if I can just get ahold of some Kevlar body armour, I can take care of those chickens....

Why doesn't someone just go ahead and rip my heart out and stomp on it? Tonight, as Sadie was saying her prayers, she said, "God bless Mamaw, and Papaw. Mommy, need see Papaw now. Need see Papaw and Mamaw and Grammie Poopsie, and Cameron. And goats, and cow - feed cow with bottle with Papaw! Cow poop! Papaw - cow poop, with leaves! (he covered up cow poop with leaves as they were feeding the baby cow last time we went to NC). Need see Grammie! Need feed birds with Grammie... come and get it, birds! Mommy, get in car. Go Care-line-a. Get my shoes on." I'm telling you, it was heart-wrenching. I had to kiss her , turn off the light, and leave the room so I wouldn't start bawling all over the place and scare her. It's one thing for ME to be homesick, but when a two year old is homesick with absolutely no prompting from anyone, it's time for a visit. For Pete's sake.